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Internet Addressing: A Technical Overview

The document provides a technical overview of internet addressing including background information, history of internet addressing, internet address allocators, and conclusions. It details how internet addresses have changed over time from fixed length classes to more flexible classless addressing with variable length host and network parts.

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51 views13 pages

Internet Addressing: A Technical Overview

The document provides a technical overview of internet addressing including background information, history of internet addressing, internet address allocators, and conclusions. It details how internet addresses have changed over time from fixed length classes to more flexible classless addressing with variable length host and network parts.

Uploaded by

Ougraz hassan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Internet Addressing

A Technical Overview

David R. Conrad
[email protected]
Internet Software Consortium
Overview

 Background
 Internet Address History
 Internet Address Allocators
 Conclusions
Addresses -- How to get here from there

 Addresses provide information on how to


locate something, e.g., what route to take
from here to there.
 Internet addresses combine
– a routing portion, known as the network part
– a name portion known as the host part
 How to split an Internet address into the
network part and the host part has changed
over time…
The Beginning
 Back when the TCP/IP protocols were first
being designed, there was a big argument
between fixed length and variable length
addresses
– Fixed length will always be limited
• But if you make it big enough, no one will notice
– Variable length will always take more cycles to
process
• But there are tricks you can play to minimize the
difference
 The decision was made for fixed, 32 bit
addresses
– Rumor has it, by a flip of a coin...
IP version 4 Addresses

 32 bit unsigned integers


– possible values 0 - 4,294,967,295
 Typically written as a “dotted quad of octets”
– four 8 bit values with a range of 0-255 separated by “.”
– For example, 202.12.28.129 can be written as below

202 . 12 . 28 . 129

1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Internet Addresses

 A subset of IPv4 addresses


– One of an infinite number
 Guaranteed globally unique by the IANA
– Generally allocated by delegated authorities such as Internet
service providers or regional registries
– Assumed to be routable
• Bad assumption
 Partitioned into two parts
– A host part that identifies a particular machine on a local or
wide area network
– A network part that gives routers information how to get to
the local or wide area network via the Internet
Internet Address Structure

 Originally, the architects of the Internet thought 256


networks would be more than enough
– Assumed a few very large (16,777,216 hosts) networks
– They were wrong (in case you were wondering)
 Addresses were partitioned as below
– 8 bit network part, 24 bit host part

Network Part Host Part


Classfull Addressing
 Original addressing plan too limiting
– More than 256 networks with many fewer hosts
than 224
 Solution was to create address classes
Network Part Host Part

Class A
128 networks
16,777,216 hosts
0
Network Part Host Part
Class B
16,384 networks
65,536 hosts 10

Network Part Host Part


Class C
2,097,152 networks
256 hosts 110

Class D
Multicast
268,435,456 1110
Addresses

Class E
Reserved 1111
268,435,456
Addresses
The Problem
 Class A way too big
– 16 million hosts in a flat network is unthinkable
 Class B too big
– Even 65536 host addresses is too many in most
cases
• Imagine 65534 hosts all responding to a broadcast
 Class C too small
– Most sites initially connecting to the Internet were
large Universities, 256 was too small for them
 Need more flexibility!
Subnetting
 Classfull addressing was a better fit than
original
– but class A and B networks impossible to manage
 Solution was to partition large networks
internally into sub-networks (subnets)
– Typically “class C” (8 bit host part) sized subnets
although variable length subnets used too
"Real" Host Part

Network Part "Subnet" Part "Effective" Host Part


Classless Addressing
 Forget what I just told you
– Classfull addressing is officially “Bad”™
• 3 sizes just don’t fit all -- very wasteful
 Better solution is to use variable length partitioning
between the host and network parts
– Actual partitioning for a site provided by routing protocol
– notation is dotted quad followed by a “/” and the network part
length, e.g., 202.12.28.129/26  First host on 64 host
network starting at 202.12.28.128
 No need for subnets
202 12 28 129

1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Host Part
Network Part (26 bits)
(6 bits)
Example of Classless Addressing
 Prefix 202.12.28.0/22
– 1024 host addresses
– announced as a single
202.12.28.0/22
network (important!) 1024 hosts

 Consists of 7 subnets
202.12.28.0/23 202.12.28.30/23
– 202.12.28.0/25 512 hosts 512 hosts

– 202.12.28.128/26
202.12.28.0/24 202.12.29.0/24 202.12.30.0/24 202.12.31.0/24
– 202.12.28.192/26 256 hosts 256 hosts 256 hosts 256 hosts

– 202.12.29.0/24
202.12.28.0/25 202.12.28.128/25 202.12.31.0/25 202.12.31.128/25
– 202.12.30.0/24 128 hosts 128 hosts 128 hosts 128 hosts
– 202.12.31.0/25
202.12.28.128/26 202.12.28.192/26
– 202.12.31.128/25 64 hosts 64 hosts
Summary

 Internet addresses are 32 bit fixed


length globally unique numbers
– One subset of all IPv4 address spaces
 Internet addresses have evolved over
time to be more flexible and to include
hierarchy
 Currently, classless addressing is in use
providing arbitrary host and network
part lengths.

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